Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

77
Vayechi
Ephraim and Menashe – What’s Their Deal?
Jonathan Tepp
I n this week’s parsha, we are told the famous story of Ephraim and Menashe
and Yaakov’s crisscrossing hands when he blessed them, putting his right hand on
Ephraim and his left hand on Menashe. One level of understanding this episode is
Rashi’s famous explanation, that Ephraim was destined to be the greater one because
Yehoshua was destined to come from him, whereas Menashe would produce Gideon,
who was one of the great Judges of Israel but who was not as great as Yehoshua (Rashi
to 48:19).
The Netziv, in his famous commentary Ha’amek Davar (48:14), asks why Yaakov
could not simply have switched around the boys and had Ephraim on his right and
Menashe on his left and thus would not have needed to crisscross his hands. Surely
crisscrossing his hands was unnecessary? The Netziv further points out that in Parshat
Bamidbar in the first census of the Jewish people in the desert, Ephraim appears first,
just like in our parsha (48:20); however, in Parshat Pinchas, in the second census of the
Jews in the desert, Menashe appears first!
The Netziv gives a very interesting answer. He says that Ephraim excelled at Torah
learning and spiritual matters, whereas Menashe excelled in the ways of the world
(“halichot olam”) by being actively involved in the world, such as involving himself
with the needs of the Jewish community. With this understanding, we can now
understand the censuses in Sefer Bamidbar. The first census was during the era when
the Mishkan was established and the Jewish people lived a supernatural existence, so